Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals

Tempo Payments Inc., the PIN-debit alternative network for retailers, has signed another large gas-station/convenience-store chain to its issuing ranks. Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip Corp. will offer a rewards card program in a phased rollout beginning in the second quarter involving 50 stores in an unspecified market, Tempo announced this week. Privately …

Pay By Touch Inc., the San Francisco company best known for its biometric authentication system for point-of-sale transactions, this week saw its merchant-processing unit take a step calculated to extend its reach into new merchant markets and attract more independent sales organizations to resell its services. Under this week's agreement, …

With efforts by merchants to force down interchange rates picking up steam, the rapidly expanding prepaid card market will confront two very different outcomes should those efforts ultimately succeed, according to an expert on interchange. Cards issued by merchants would likely benefit, but those issued by banks would be hurt, …

A recent survey indicates debit card issuers may be overreacting to database breaches that compromise card data held by merchants. Nine out of 10 debit card issuers have received notice in the last few years that their cards could have been compromised in a breach, and of these, some 87% …

Digital games are ringing up solid increases in sales on mobile phones in the U.S., but face rising competition from emerging content like video and full-track music, according to a report released on Monday. Games sold on mobile operators' portals reached $151 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of …

PayPal Inc. will introduce a new service for its mobile-payments product, PayPal Mobile, that will allow users to make remote purchases from merchants that have mobile Web sites. Kevin Dulsky, senior director and general manager for PayPal Mobile, revealed the new service during a panel discussion at a prepaid card …

10 Tipping Points for the Payments Industry Part 9 The very existence of 17,000 financial institutions in this country defies most conventional economic logic, which says efficient markets usually consolidate and concentrate around the biggest and best participants. But in the payments realm, bigger is not always better. That's why …

MasterCard Worldwide is playing it both ways regarding its new interchange rate schedule set to take effect in April. Internet retailers will see their acceptance costs decline for some MasterCard credit card transactions but rise for others. It depends on whether the card used for a transaction is a “Core …

Visa USA's chief executive on Wednesday outlined a multimarket strategy for prepaid cards, while announcing that convenience-store titan 7-Eleven Inc. has joined Visa's fledgling prepaid reload network and calling for greater efforts to educate regulators about the unique characteristics of prepaid plastic. “There's an incredible opportunity [in the prepaid market],” …

Hackers frequently go free, but Coventry, R.I., police late Monday night arrested four California men suspected in the recent theft of debit and credit card data from PIN pads at grocery-store chain Stop & Shop Supermarket Cos. While the arrests are certainly good news to Stop & Shop and banks, …

A startup processor on Monday launched a service intended to allow consumers to pay online merchants with cash. Retail Expansion Network Inc., Oakland, Calif., says its PaidByCash service will attract consumers who are reluctant to use credit cards online or who don't have bank accounts, and will be cheaper for …

Leading payment processor First Data Corp. said on Thursday it would gradually exit the money-order and official-check businesses, a move some analysts see as a landmark in the growth of prepaid cards and electronic bill payment by consumers lacking traditional bank accounts. “Money orders are in big trouble,” says research …

10 Tipping Points for the Payments Industry Part 8 From the way alternative-payment options are treated by the big players in the electronic- payments industry, you would think these options carried infectious diseases. Not long ago, a payments executive on the treasury side of a major national retailer lamented that …

Off-price retailer TJX Cos. Inc. on Wednesday divulged more information about the intrusion into its computer network that contained credit and debit card data, but one piece of information still eludes public disclosure: the actual number of accounts compromised. Earlier estimates put the figure as high as 40 million (Digital …

With consumer fees rapidly trending downward, expedited bill payment may be turning into more of a service to cement customer relationships than a source of revenue. Indeed, the median fee for the service is now zero, compared to $2.50 in 2005, according to survey research recently completed by Javelin Strategy …

Although many details remain unclear, a security breach at a big supermarket chain in the Northeast bears some resemblance to a sophisticated rigging of point-of-sale equipment to capture PINs and other card data last year in Canada. Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop Supermarket Cos., which has 385 stores in New …

Some 16% of community banks offer remote deposit capture of checks to business customers, and nearly one-third of these say they have adopted the electronic check technology as “an essential survival strategy,” according to a survey released on Monday by the American Bankers Association. At the same time, 65% of …

10 Tipping Points for the Payments Industry Part 7 Bubbling like a witch's cauldron in the heart of the electronic payments industry's turmoil over signature cards is the strange and self-destructive contention between the two primary ways of getting funds out of your checking accounts with a bank card. Banks …

It's a classic corporate case of the tail wagging the dog. In particular, it's Comdata Corp., a payment processor and prepaid and fleet card provider that generates more than half the profits of its parent company, Bloomington, Minn.-based Ceridian Corp., even though it accounts for only 30% of the revenues. …

Merchants, card issuers, utilities, e-commerce operators, and other businesses looking to guard against identity fraud may want to take a closer look at applications coming from Floral Park, Queens, a part of New York City. They may also need to scrutinize new customers from Faulkton, S.D., population 800. That's because …